The 2015 Malaysian motorcycle Grand Prix (formally the Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix) was the seventeenth (and penultimate round) of eighteen motorcycle races of the 2015 MotoGP season. It was held before a crowd of 88,832 people at the Sepang International Circuit in the Malaysian district of Sepang in Selangor on 25 October 2015. Dani Pedrosa of Honda won the 20-lap race from pole position. Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo finished second and his teammate Valentino Rossi came in third. In the junior classes, Johann Zarco won the Moto2 race on a Kalex bike and KTM's Miguel Oliveira won in Moto3.
Pedrosa won the pole position by recording the fastest lap in qualifying and maintained his start line advantage going into the first corner. The race was, however, overshadowed by the three-lap duel for third place between Honda rider Marc Márquez and his rival Rossi as the two traded position several times per lap. The tension between the two was high when Márquez and Rossi duelled each other in Argentina and the Netherlands and Rossi accused Márquez of helping teammate Lorenzo in Australia which both riders denied. The duel ended with Márquez and Rossi colliding at turn fourteen on lap seven. Although Rossi continued, Márquez fell from his bike and retired in the pit lane after remounting his bike. Pedrosa meanwhile led every lap to take his second victory of the season, his 28th in MotoGP and the 51st of his career by almost four seconds over Lorenzo. Rossi was issued three penalty points and was required to start from the rear of the grid at the season-ending Valencian Community Grand Prix since he had another penalty point from earlier in the season and he withdrew a subsequent appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in December 2015.
In the junior classes, Thomas Lüthi started from pole position in Moto2 with a new class lap record. Lüthi and Zarco traded places on the first lap and then both riders were able to establish a small advantage at the front of the field. Zarco began closing up to Lüthi with seven laps left but Lüthi responded by seeing a pit board message that encouraged him to increase his pace. Zarco however conserved the life of his tyres in the closing stages of the race and passed Lüthi at turn two on the final lap to win for the eighth time in the season. Niccolò Antonelli began the Moto3 race from pole position but got involved in a multi-rider duel which had the lead swapped hands in almost every lap of the round. In the end, Miguel Oliveira ended up drafting his teammate Brad Binder on the back straight and overtook him at the final corner. Oliviera fended Binder off to win his fifth race of the season. Danny Kent had the possibility to win the Riders' Championship at Sepang if he came fifth regardless where Oliviera came but was unable to do so when he took seventh.
The consequence of the race meant Lorenzo was now trailing Rossi by seven points in the Riders' Championship and Márquez retained third place despite his retirement. Pedrosa's victory allowed him to move into fourth after Andrea Iannone retired from a punctured radiator on the second lap of the race. In the Teams' Championship, Yamaha increased their unassailable lead to 200 points over Honda and Ducati retained third despite both their riders not reaching the end of the event. Tech 3 and Suzuki completed the top five. Yamaha still led the Constructors' Championship on 382 points; Honda and Ducati were second and third with one round left in the season.
Report Background
The 2015 Malaysian motorcycle Grand Prix was announced as part of MotoGP's 2015 schedule by the world governing body of motorcycle racing, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) in September 2014. It was the twenty-fifth consecutive Grand Prix to be held in Malaysia and the sixteenth straight race at the fifteen-turn Sepang International Circuit. The Grand Prix was the seventeenth scheduled round of the 2015 MotoGP season by FIM and was held on 25 October after two preceding days of practice and qualifying. With forest fires continuing to burn in neighboring Indonesia, heavy smog was a concern for the race. Unhealthy levels affected the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix two months earlier and Sepang International Circuit managing director Razlan Razali negotiated with MotoGP's promoter Dorna Sports and the International Road Racing Teams Association about shortening the meeting if required. It was later confirmed that the event would proceed without any restrictions due to the championship situation, and monitoring equipment was installed at the circuit to measure the local air quality.
Coming into the race from Australia one week earlier, Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi was leading the Riders' Championship with 296 points and his nearest championship rival was teammate Jorge Lorenzo was a further eleven points behind in second. Repsol Honda's Marc Márquez placed third with 222 points and Andrea Iannone of Ducati followed in fourth with 188 points. Dani Pedrosa, the second Honda factory rider, rounded out the top five with 165 points. In the Teams' Championship, Yamaha MotoGP topped the standings with 581 points. Repsol Honda (392 points) and Ducati (341) were closer to each other in the battle for second while Tech 3 and Suzuki MotoGP completed the top five with 254 and 172 points respectively. Yamaha led the Constructors' Championship with 362 points: Honda, Ducati, Suzuki and Yamaha Forward followed in the next four placings with a respective 310, 237, 120 and 33 points accrued. 50 points were available for the final two rounds of the season which meant Rossi could win his eighth MotoGP championship in Sepang. Rossi needed to score fifteen more points than Lorenzo if the latter finished sixth or lower.
The tension was high between Rossi and Márquez going into the weekend because the duo had engaged in a battle at the Argentine Grand Prix that left Márquez crashing out of the race after colliding with the rear of Rossi's bike and the Dutch TT later that year when the pair got involved in a duel for the win that ended in Rossi's favour despite a collision with Márquez at the track's final chicane on the final lap of the event. In the pre-race press conference, Rossi accused Márquez of aiding his championship rival Lorenzo in Australia which both riders denied. Rossi continued and stated his belief Márquez was not a fan of his when growing up, a comment that angered Márquez. Meanwhile, Pedrosa aimed to return to the podium after stating his happiness over his fifth-place finish at the Australian Grand Prix and wanted to give himself the best opportunity of securing a strong result and noted the physical and mental demands placed on the rider due to Malaysia's warm climate.
Practice and qualifying Four practice sessions – two for both Friday and Saturday – were held before the race on Sunday. The first two on Friday ran for 45 minutes each with a third identically timed practice session held on Saturday morning. The final session on Saturday afternoon lasted half an hour. Pedrosa set the fastest time of the first practice session in hot weather conditions early on with a two minutes and 00.412 seconds lap. Lorenzo followed two-seconds of a second adrift in second and Márquez followed in third. The rest of the top ten was completed by Rossi, Scott Redding, Cal Crutchlow, Iannone, Héctor Barberá, Aleix Espargaró and Andrea Dovizioso. The track had a large amount of dust but had just two riders crash in the final twelve minutes: Crutchlow went off at turn five while Alvaro Bautista fell off his bike at the turn fifteen hairpin; both incidents occurred concurrently and the duo returned to the pit lane to mount onto their spare bikes. In the second practice session, Lorenzo recorded the fastest lap of the day at two minutes and 00.246 seconds with four minutes remaining. His fellow Spaniards Pedrosa and Márquez were second and third. Iannone, Crutchlow, Aleix Espargaró, Dovizioso, Danilo Petrucci and Redding followed in the top ten. The sole incident of second practice happened seven minutes in when Iannone crashed at turn eight.
Hazy weather conditions continued to affect Sepang heading into the third practice session which had Lorenzo improve on his previous best time from the day prior to record the fastest lap of the weekend so far late in practice at one minute and 59.544 seconds with Márquez following 0.142 seconds behind in second. Pedrosa was third-fastest, Rossi placed fourth and Barberá fifth. Crutchlow, Aleix Espargaró, Dovizioso, Pol Espargaró and Maverick Viñales occupied positions six through ten. Late in the session, Petrucci lost control of the front of his bike and crashed out at turn seven. Petrucci was unhurt. Pedrosa topped the time sheets in the fourth practice session with a lap time of two minutes and 00.471 seconds. Márquez was 0.322 seconds slower in second place and Iannone was running stronger and set the third-fastest lap. Lorenzo was fourth-quickest; Rossi was fifth and Dovizioso sixth. Aleix Espargaró placed seventh, his brother Pol Espargaró was eighth, Redding ninth and Bradley Smith completed the top ten ahead of qualifying. The sole incident of the session occurred halfway through when the front of Lorenzo's bike got loose and slid into the gravel trap at the final corner.
Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into two parts. The two sessions lasted 15 minutes and had the slowest riders in the first three practice sessions compete in the first part with the second session composing the top ten quickest participants from the opening trio of practice sessions. The first session had the fastest two competitors progress into the second session which determined pole position through to twelfth. While most riders opted for three timed runs, Pedrosa chose to perform two and ventured onto the track later so he would not be impeded by traffic. This enabled Pedrosa to clinch his first pole position of the season, his first since the 2014 Catalan Grand Prix, and broke Márquez's lap record of the Sepang International Circuit from the previous year with a time of one minute and 59.053 seconds. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Márquez whose fastest lap was four-tenths of a second off Pedrosa's pace and avoided crashing on his second run after making a rider error. Rossi joined the duo in third but was initially a second slower despite slipstreaming Iannone but achieved his fastest time without drafting anyone on his final attempt. Lorenzo was fourth after believing he had qualified in the top three and was observed riding towards parc fermé but was redirected to his garage. Crutchlow secured fifth place in the closing minutes and demoted Iannone to sixth who had steering issues with his bike while Dovizioso took seventh. Viñales and Smith progressed into the second qualifying session, placing eighth and ninth and Barberá rounded out the top ten with his time matched by Aleix Espargaró who crashed in qualifying's closing seconds. Pol Espargaró was the slowest rider of the twelve that competed in the first qualifying session.